For years, Lake Erie charter-boat captains have feared the day when the always-hungry Asian carp
would invade their waters.

A fish has yet to be found, but those fears were stoked by recent news that the DNA of two
species of Asian carp was found in six water samples from Maumee and Sandusky bays. The discovery
will prompt state and federal wildlife officials to start hunting for a fish they don’t want to
find.

“We were out Friday doing test-netting and electro-fishing in the vicinity where the eDNA was
found,” said Rich Carter, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ administrator for fish
management and research. “We did not find Asian carp.”

“It would have a devastating effect on the fishery here,” Bihn said. “There is no doubt about
that.”

The fear is that Asian carp, once established, would spread throughout the Great Lakes and
out-compete the native fish for food. Of 417 water samples taken from Lake Erie last year, six
showed the environmental DNA, or eDNA, of Asian carp. A positive test can come from fish mucous,
excrement and scales floating in the water. Four samples detected eDNA of bighead carp in Sandusky
Bay, and two showed eDNA of silver carp in Maumee Bay.

The relatively small number of positive samples does not say with certainty that Lake Erie has a
breeding population, experts said.

A positive sample could result from the feces of a great blue heron that had eaten a small Asian
carp in Indiana and flown to Lake Erie, said Jeffrey Reutter, director of Ohio State University’s
sea-grant program.

The DNA also could come from nonbreeding fish. Three bighead carp were caught in different parts
of the lake — one in 1995 and two in 2000 — but they were by themselves and thus not considered at
risk of producing more fish, according to a U.S. Geological Survey database.

The Asian-carp problem began in Illinois in 1993 when floods along the Mississippi River helped
the fish escape from nearby fish farms. The carp now dominate stretches of the Mississippi and
Illinois rivers. Among the four species of Asian carp, silver carp are known to leap out of the
water when startled by boat motors. Bighead carp can weigh in at 60 pounds, Carter said.